About Me

Jim is the author of eight novels, three memoirs and four business books. He made a covered wagon and horseback trip across Texas to retrace the journey his ancestors had made two generations earlier and wrote Biscuits Across the Brazos to chronicle the trip. He traveled the team roping circuit as an amateur and worked roundups on big ranches. Working beside real cowboys sent him back to writing. Using lessons he had learned from more than 10,000 client interviews over thirty years and memories from his rural Texas roots, Jim published five novels in his Follow the Rivers series and three in the Tee Jessup/Riverby series. He has also published three memoirs and story collections.He has been a Writers Digest International Book Contest Finalist.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

News from the Rivers

The last four months have been some of the best of the year
as far as writing is concerned. I was honored to be interviewed about Rivers
Ebb by Jack Drucker of The Book Club program. The interview was aired
by stations in Tampa Bay, Florida and Little Rock, Arkansas. Jack said that my
third novel does for the Texas Panhandle what How Green Was My Valley
did for the valleys of South Wales. Listen
to the interview by clicking the podcast on my website.

My fifth novel, Go Down Looking is deep into the
editing phase at Tate Publishing, moving steadily forward toward a spring 2012 release.
And I am approximately 90% done with the first draft of my sixth novel (still
unnamed).

During Bois d’arc Bash festivities in Commerce, I led a
“literary tour” of the places mentioned in my Follow the Rivers
Trilogy. I had done this on a less
formal basis once before and the second time was even more fun because Emmett
Day and his daughter came along. A. L. Day Elementary School in Commerce was
named for his father. Emmett recently celebrated his ninety-sixth birthday and
has maintained his lively wit and intelligence. He lives in Washington but
flies back to Texas on a regular basis to visit his wife’s grave and other
acquaintances. He also has Delta County connections. Wife Roxey lived just
inside the county. We visited the sites where characters in my novels lived and
died (including graves) and where significant scenes took place (like Dad
Flannigan’s store). I explained the small differences between what really
happened and how I fictionalized the people and events and why I chose to write
it the way I did. They were surprised, as most people are, to learn that two
people (not just one) died on the day of a terrible tragedy described in Rivers
Crossing.

I also made a presentation to the Friends of the Mineola
Memorial Library. What a terrific group. They were attentive and responsive. The
primary key to such events is having at least one member of the audience who has
read some or all of my books and I was so pleased when one of the members stood
and gave me a ringing endorsement. Another key is to get questions, and this
fine group obliged. This was my first time to read from the prologue (I call it
the front bookend) to Go Down Looking. I am usually hesitant to do readings, because
heads start to nod as soon as you open the book, but not this time. I hope it
was a combination of good audience, good reading and good writing.

I also had a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully there will be
more) experience when the Friends of the Sulphur Springs Library arranged “An
Evening with Jim Ainsworth”. Trice and Pat Lawrence, Terry Mathews, and others
really went beyond the call in making this a successful event. Terry, Arts and
Entertainment Editor for the Sulphur
Springs News Telegram, asked me questions about all my books and asked me
to read excerpts she had selected. Doesn’t get much better for an author than
to have someone else choose reading selections they like. At the end, I read
from Go
Down Looking again. In publicity leading up to the event, the group
arranged interviews with many media outlets including Enola Gay with KSST radio,
County Line Magazine, Front Porch News and many others. My head got a little
swelled and I almost ran off I-30 when I saw my name on the huge billboard
outside of town. Headlines and articles described me as “An Authentic Texas
Cowboy” and “World Champion Team Roper”. If it were only so, my lifelong dreams
would have been realized.

At another event in Pittsburg, I realized that I was going
to have to open a Twitter account and start actually doing something on
Facebook, and return to my old blog (abandoned since 2008). So here we go. In future postings, I plan to do some short
book reviews on what I am reading, a few movie reviews, and a few short
stories. I am looking forward to telling readers of this blog about my trip to
the Tennessee Hills to meet one of my favorite authors. Stay with me and tell
your friends.